Keith, as stated in the BBC account quoted by Jon, a news broadcast preceding the forecast included an item about a storm causing damage in the Caribbean. Michael Fish did warn of strong winds, but at that time the met office thought that the main thrust of the storm would be along the English Channel.

I wrung this out of Bill Giles, no less, when he gave a lecture to the Institution of Eletrical and Electronic Engineers in the early 1990s, when he was head of the BBC forecasts team.

As for Giles himself, I would say Eric the Red has got his measure far better than Jon. The BBC was arraigned before an Industrial Tribunal on account of his bullying and tormenting of subordinates. In the lecture I attended he spent much of his time belittling his subordinates by name - not least, Michael Fish and Ian McCaskill.

As for the best - well there's only one Suzanne Charlton.... and it was the icing on the cake when the Radio Times described her as Jack Charlton's niece (rather than Bobby Charlton's daughter)!